A Week in Review (March 19-25)

A Week in Review (March 19-25)

Watched: The Jayhawks send my heart soaring with two phenomenal wins over Michigan State and Purdue.  Then they broke it into a million tiny pieces when they just couldn't get it together for a game against Oregon.  It was so ugly.  Every year you forget quite how much you have invested in them, but then they always remind you in the worst possible way.  At least this way we don't have to worry about it when we are on the cruise next week!

Read: I finished up I Liked My Life this week.  As I said last week, this really hit home on so many levels and it got to me while I was reading it. I liked the ending and it wrapped up much quicker than I was expecting it too. Good chic lit read.  I can't say too much about it because I don't want to give it away for anyone else who might choose to read it.  I started another chic lit book this week too.  It is called Maybe in Another Life.  I am really liking it!

Listened: To the wind howl Thursday night and Friday morning.  Along with the high winds, we had about 4-5" of extremely wet snow.  We ended up losing a big chunk of our fence.  Sadly, our landlord doesn't own the fence and therefore we can't just go out and fix it.  It makes it a bit of pain with Nora and even more so because we were planning on her being able to go back there while our neighbors watch her for us.  I am so thankful that they are flexible and easy going people who I know will make the situation work.

Made: Trips to several different stores before settling on what I was going to Jack where for our formal dinner on the cruise.  I ended up sticking him in dress pants, button down, tie, and vest.  I think that it will be fancy enough.  I am hoping he likes trying a wide variety of new food knowing that he always as pizza as a backup.

Felt: Glad that Spring pictures are done.  I was trying to figure out what to dress Jack in for the photos and I decided to just let him go in an outfit that he enjoys so we have an athletic shirt and athletic pants.  It's exactly what he likes to wear on any given day.  I also let him pick the pose and the backdrop that they will use.  I was up working on school photos, so I don't know what they will look like, but I am excited to see them.  I am also thrilled because every student that I needed to grab a photo of for the yearbook was there!  It makes for a busy day, but I am glad that I get to be there.

Planned: On Jack not having in football practice on account of the snow we had Friday morning.  But in true, Coach Chris fashion, practice was on.  He even went so far as to scoop a path on the field so it wasn't all snowy for the boys.  On the first practice, he let them wear their snow pants, but for Saturday's practice which was just as wet, it needed to be normal clothes.  Jack was a muddy mess!  He was so proud of how he looked, he wanted to leave it to show his teacher who was visiting for the Jayhawk game.  I told him, nope, unless he was doing laundry.  He settled for a picture.

Loved: Jack's report card this semester.  He got all A's!  That's really amazing considering writing is a constant struggle for him.  He has come so far under his great teacher and we are extremely proud of his hard work.  He is a great student who enjoys school.  I hope that continues for many years to come.  It will make everyone's life so much easier if it does!

Here are the pics for the week:

Our downed fence :(

My muddy football player!

I got this meme before the game and it made me laugh.  I didn't realize how much Frank Mason's face would resemble that at the end of the game though.

A Week in Review (March 12-18)

A Week in Review (March 12-18)

Watched: All sorts of March Madness. The only time a game wasn't on was when I was at Jack's football practice on Thursday night. I arranged for one of his teammates mom's to pick him up so that I could watch the Friday game uninterrupted. It wasn't as much fun watching it alone, but I was texting lots of people, so that helped a bit. I teared up when Tyler Self hit a three pointer to put us at 100 points.

Read:  I finished up The Murder on the Orient Express before I headed to book club on Sunday.  I really enjoyed this story. The way the book was laid out was really intriguing to me. I loved trying to puzzle together all the evidence. I guessed decently early on and I felt the ending became pretty obvious by the time the "big reveal" happened. If you are a who-done-it fan, I'd recommend picking up this one. I'm hoping the new movie does it justice.  Next, I started The One Man.  I also really enjoyed this World War II story. It made you think about how far you would be willing to go for redemption and the people you love. Excellent for a historical fiction fans and for people who enjoy reading World War II novels.  Next, I started on I Liked My Life.  Its' really hitting home for me since it's about a SAHM who has an only child who doesn't need her as much and a workaholic husband!  I definitely can't wait to see how it turns out.
 
Listened: To a hilarious story about ASS.  It's the acronym for Attention Seeking Syndrome.  My friend Katie, her twin sister Kelly, and her mom are writing a book about their grandmother and mother respectively.  Apparently she suffers from ASS.  It left me in stitches.  I really hope they are able to successfully get it it published.  I am looking forward to more installments at the book clubs in the future.

Made: Several yearbook pages.  It feels good to have a plan and to be completing the pages.  It's hard to think that just a little over a month from now it will be all done.  We need to sell a lot more of them or we will be hurting, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it!  I know people like to do things last minute and so that just might be the way it goes with this too.

Felt: Glad that Jack could come to school and play soccer with my four year old classes.  He had been wanting to hang out and meeting who I spend my Friday's with.  He had a good time, but was glad to get out of there because he got to hang out with his friend Oliver for the afternoon.  I got him back just in time to ship him off to football practice before the Jayhawk game started.

Planned: All sorts of dinners to eat while Nick was in Salt Lake City. I thought I had done a pretty good job of choosing things we would both like that were quick and easy. Apparently Jack decided that it was a good week for Ramen and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  Some battles are worth fighting. I did have him help pick food that he would eat for sure when Nick is out of town next week, so hopefully we won't run into that same problem again..

Loved: That Nick returned from Utah with a bunch of my favorite sweets.  I have not been able to find a great donut in Colorado Springs, so it's always a real treat when he brings them back for me.  He even stopped on his way out of town, so everything was extra fresh.  It's a lot of love to stop at a busy donut store when you have 600 mile trek ahead of you.  He also stopped by Schmidt's and picked me up their mint whoopie pies.  Sooo good!

Here are the pics for the week:

Jack found a bunch a footballs that he owns.  He honestly tried to convince me that he needed more!

Nick accepting an award for
The Point in Salt Lake City.

A Week in Review (March 5-11)

A Week in Review (March 5-11)

Watched: Feud. It's a new show on FX about the relationship between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, especially while they filmed Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.  I really enjoyed the premiere and am looking forward to more episodes.

Read:  I was able to finish up The Woman in Cabin 10.  It was not a bad book, but the unreliable narrator combine with an unrealistic plot just didn't really do it for me. I liked this book better than In A Dark, Dark Wood. If you enjoyed that novel, I think you would find this one even more enjoyable.  I got a late start on our book club book, Murder on the Orient Express.  I will have to finish it up Sunday morning before I head over!

Listened: To Jack excitedly announce that we going to have "Winner Picks" Saturday.  We had been watching the show Worst Cooks in America and since Jack's pick made it the furthest, he got to pick first.  We got to play lots of knock out, Sequence, run some errands, and wrapping up with some reading while the boys settled into a movie.  It was a fun day.

Made: Cold weather bag for football practices.  It's hard to believe that it is already time for Spring Football.  It gets really chilly down on the field, especially as you are just sitting there and watching the boys practice.  Having a season under my belt, I felt much better prepared.  Everyone is looking forward to Daylight Savings time so that practices don't end in the pitch black.  We are back with the Cottonwood Cougars so we already know the coach and what to expect so that's pretty handy.

Felt: Relieved that I got most of Champions of Character gear finalized.  I am pretty proud of how they turned out.  You can see two of the examples below.  I searched like crazy to find reasonably priced custom socks that had a decent turn around time.  Turns out that doesn't exist.  We found some wrestling socks in our team colors and that will just have to do.  Next year, I'll get on it a lot sooner!

Planned: On Jayhawks winning the Big 12 tournament and having several games to watch over the weekend.  Sadly, the blew a 12 point lead and lost to TCU.  I am worried about them in The Big Dance, but I know I'll pick them to go all the way out.  Hopefully this loss was just what they needed to remind them to dominate!

Loved: How my End-of-Season treats turned out for Jack's basketball team.  I just happened to be on Pinterest and saw the idea and thought it was too cute!  Then we caught a lucky break and Jack's basketball coach has her son on Jack's spring football team so I was able to ask her if it was okay I brought them.  She loved the idea.  I went to the store on Saturday morning and picked up everything up and got them made.  It took me a little over an hour to make 12, which I didn't think was too bad.  The boys liked them too, which made me even more excited because I wasn't sure if they would appreciate them.  It will bum me out when those little things won't be appreciated anymore, so I will embrace all the moments that they are!

Here are the pics for the week:

 

 

A Week in Review (February 26-March 4)

A Week in Review (February 26-March 4)

Watched: Rookie Wrestling on Sunday.  Jack was really excited to go see his teammates compete in the state tournament.  Nick has also coached many of them and we knew that it would be helpful if he was there.  Jack was pretty devastated when he didn't get to be on the mat being a coach like he wanted.  He was also pretty bummed that his little buddy didn't have a great day.  Jack felt the call that put him in out in the second match wasn't justified and he took it pretty hard.  Overall, our club did great, having three kids place.  It was pretty exciting to watch them work hard and win big!

Read: I saw the return dates looming for some of the books that I wanted to read, so I pushed myself to read more diligently this week.  I was able to finish All Things Cease to Appear.  This book was scatterbrained, disconnected, far-fetched and generally just awful. I know I found it from some list of books to read and if I see it on another list, it will discredit it for me. While it sounded decent in synopsis, it was awful in execution. Not a book that I'd really recommend to anyone. The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because the language used in the text wasn't all that awful and I was able to finish hoping for some sort of conclusion.  I also have borrowed the essay, Lying.  Nick talks a lot about this book and so I decided that I should give it a read.  With it's conclusion, I will read The Woman in Cabin 10.  I am not sure if I will make it all the way through before I have to pause it to read Murder on the Orient Express that we have selected for our book club.

Listened: Bottle Flipping.  The phenomenon has finally hit our home.  Jack and Landon were both very excited when they made a bottle flip and land on backboard.  I am sure it would have been even more exciting if they had "capped it", meaning had it land capside down.  They still called me and had me take a picture for them.   Of course, we've published it here too so that you can see it.  

Made: Poor Nick fix my starter on Tuesday.  I have been complaining to him about my car slow cranking for the last couple of weeks.  On Monday, while I was running errands, my car didn't start right away at Wal-mart.  Not cool!  Luckily about after 5 minutes, it started up.  A quick google search told me that slow crank and no crank meant that the starter most likely was out.  Nick was up in Denver preparing for a big presentation.  Luckily, he was able to get a company car so that I could have his vehicle for Tuesday.  On Tuesday, their presentation got over early and he was able to come home about an hour and half early.  I could tell that he really wanted to just relax after a crazy week followed by a busy weekend of wrestling, but I wanted my car back.  So out he and Jack went to see if the starter was indeed the problem and to fix whatever it was.  Luckily it was just the starter and it was a relatively easy fix.  He only spent about 2.5 hours total on it and that included the time it took for me to run and purchase a new one.  It's so nice to have a handy husband!

Felt: Exhausted and sore from loading and unloading all the water bottles that we need for Jack's Dr. Seuss Dash.  On Thursday, I bought 12, 40-packs of water, 100 lbs of oranges, and 480 cheese sticks.  I had to put that all on my cart, then unload it all to my car, then unload it all to the school, then move it to where we needed for easy counting, than move those boxes to where the need to go for delivery.  I was proud that it was my legs that were so sore because that meant that I had did my lifting right!  I had to work so I didn't see Jack to his run, but he was very proud to have completed 17 laps in 15 minutes.  That ends up working out the pace of about a 7.5 minute mile.  Not bad at all!

Planned: On taking my nice camera to get some snap shots of Jack playing basketball this winter.  I forgot so I decided to take a video.  I don't think I could have picked a better quarter to record.  He, and his entire team, had a great quarter.  They all did really phenomenal the whole game!  It is fun to watch the progress that he has made.  You can see the video HERE.

Loved: Doing the 40 bags in 40 days challenge with two of my friends.  Our two moves and kept me pretty well paired down, but for about the last 8 months, I have felt myself becoming more lax about what I bringing into the house.  I saw this challenge on Facebook so my girlfriends and I decided to give it a shot.  I have cleaned out my side of the closet (which was especially good because I found a great deal on some dresses for the cruise and there was plenty of space for them!), our shoes, Jack's hanging clothes, and the kitchen drawers.  I am also organizing the areas as I go through them so I am getting a nice double bonus!  It will be interesting to see if I can have enough stuff do all 40 days.  I do think that I have a couple projects that might take two days, like my pantry!

Here are the pics for the week:

 

 

A Week in Review (February 19-25)

A Week in Review (February 19-25)

Watched: Jack, as he puts it "break the ankles of the best player on their team" with an excellent move during his Saturday basketball game. He got a steal and had a breakaway drive. The opposing team best player tried to block that shot, and Jack had an excellent cut that allowed him to finish driving to the basket. He was proud of himself too!  I'm glad that we found this opportunity for him to be able to play basketball that doesn't interfere with his wrestling schedule. I don't think we'll be as lucky next year when he wrestles in the afternoon. 

Read:  I finished up The Second Mrs. Hockaday this week.  An excellent Civil War novel. It's told in a unique way through diary entries, letters, and some third person. If you liked The Kitchen House, I think you would enjoy this story also. It's a fairly quick read.  I have a couple more books that I need to get to fairly quickly, but I didn't read a lot during the second of half of the week.  Hopefully I will still be able to bring you a review of one of them this next week.

Listened: To Jack excitedly talk about chess. He and Nick have a long game going where they each make a move at different times throughout the day. He always looks every morning to see what Nick has played. We had to take a picture and send it to Nick so that he would know Jack had put him in check. 

Made: A lot of edits to Nick's writing for a presentation that he has coming up for this week.  Everything at work had just piled up this week on him and he spent at least 70 hours at week missing Jack's two final wrestling practices and getting next to no sleep.  Saturday night was more of the same as he sat down to write this out. He is very precise with his words and will spend hours making sure he has selected the right ones to convey his meaning. Since this presentation was for an everyman, I went through it to tell him what didn't make sense and what could be reworded. We worked into the wee hours of Sunday morning, ending up only get a few hours sleep before needing to wake and head to support our club's rookie wrestlers. It was nice, but exhausting, to work through it with him. 

Felt: Thankful to Mindy for a couple hours to run errands on Monday. She took Jack and her boys swimming at the Y since she had President's Day off.  When they were done, she swung them by and grabbed them a pizza before dropping them off.  They played here for several more hours.  It's so nice to have friends to help fill the days off.  Again on Friday, she helped us by taking Jack to practice so that we could help with weigh-ins for state. It ended up going extra long and she took him back to her house afterwards.  Then we went to dinner on Saturday night on their gift card from Christmas. 

Planned: A whole new layout for the yearbook. We aren't getting the parent response that I thought we would for photographs, so we had to take a different approach to the look. I think it will still be fine. I am glad to be working with some people who are flexible and I feel won't let me down. 

Loved: The determination that Jack shows during wrestling. It's amazing to watch him attempt to work through matches even when he is hurt. In his first match he took a hard cross face that caused him to knock a tooth a little loose and bite his lip. Both caused quite a bit of blood and to make him look like a boxer. His second match he just fought amazingly against another talented opponent. His final match was with a guy who worked the upper body. It made him have a bloody nose, opened his mouth wound, and took an impressive claw mark on the arm. Not once did allow these physical ailments to bother him. He just kept fighting through it.  I hope he continues to love wrestling and has a long career with it. I think it teaches him grit, determination, and excellent sportsmanship. 

Here are the pics for the week:

 

 

 

A Week in Review (February 12-18)

A Week in Review (February 12-18)

Watched: A comeback for the ages with the KU vs West Virginia game Monday night. They were down 14 points with just a little under 3 minutes. The announcers were giving all the stats about the last time KU had lost two back to back home games. People were leaving the Fieldhouse before the end of the game.  But they just reached down deep and made the most epic comeback. We were all very amped and had a hard time falling asleep. 

Read: I finished up Our Souls at Night.  The positives for this book were: It frequently mentioned places I was familiar with. It was also very short.  The cons for this book: It was lackluster. It didn't go anywhere. I couldn't really connect with Addie or Louis. The writing style drove me bonkers.  It's not a book that I would recommend unless you are one of the people who has to read the book before the movie.  I hopped back over to The New York Regional Mormon Singles Dance.

Listened: To Jack ask to play a lot of chess. He's really been into it since he joined the chess club at his school, but this week they announced that they are having a chess tournament and the top three kids from each grade get to represent the school. Jack is just sure that he can make it. I'm not sure how he can go from novice to representing the school in a few weeks, but I'll know he'll try which I think is totally cool. 

Made: An appointment with a mobile detailer who came to buff out the paint transfer that happened when a gal was trying to park at school on Valentine's Day. I don't even really mind that it happened as the car has lots of those scrapes from the 11 years that I have owned it. What bothered me is that she obviously hit me, in front of several people, and didn't bother to leave a note or stick around.  Another parent from the school caught it and posted a picture to our neighborhood Facebook group.  I used that information to track her down in the parking lot the next day. She claimed she was so stressed that she just forgot she scraped me. She says she will pay for the buff, but I'm not holding my breath. 

Felt: Excited when our head coach reported that we had made a little over $3000 for our club at our tournament. This helps us to support our Champions with Character gear and have fun parties for the kids. I also am hoping that it gives way to be able to have a larger fund so the Coach isn't having to layout personal funds to pay for our gym rental. 

Planned: Catching up on chores and homework on Wednesday, instead waited 45 minutes for dinner at Tucano's.  Tucano's is the local Brazilian steakhouse and it was quite yummy.  We really didn't think we would need reservations for a Wednesday night but we were clearly wrong. Next time, we will call in regardless of what day of the week. 

Loved: Valentine's Day. I was able to take in pizza and flavored water for Jack and his classmates. Plus, the whoopie cushion Valentine's that we made for his classmates.  His teacher had them each write a compliment for each other on a piece of paper. Jack's love of sports was a common component. I also loved that there were a lot of people who mentioned that he was kind. Nick and I enjoyed a lunch together because we had wrestling that evening. We decided not to exchange gifts because we are going on our trip in March.  We spent the evening at wrestling practice. It's hard to believe that there is only one more week after this week. 

Here are the pics for the week:

 

 

 

 

 

A Week in Review (February 5-11)

A Week in Review (February 5-11)

Watched: I got all caught up on my TV shows that our currently airing.  I am really enjoying the new Masterpiece show, Victoria.  It's a British royals documentary, but it's not an era that I am very familiar with so I very intrigued by all.  I know it is a doing a great job entertaining me when I am googling things to learn more about them after the show just briefly covered them.  I also watched the movie Split with Nick while Jack got to celebrate his birthday with his Tio & Aunt Jess.  It had me totally creeped out. 

Read:  I was able to finish up Carry On.  When I first started I didn't know if I was going to be able to finish because it seemed like such heavy Harry Potter fan fiction. It took about the first quarter of the book for it actually take on its own personality. I ended up enjoying most of story. Although when I was trying to think of who I would recommend it too, I couldn't come up with any particular thing to say.  Next, I started a chapter in The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir.  It didn't really float my boat and so I decided to go with Our Souls At Night, which just came off my holds list.  It's a very short book, so I will definitely have a review of next week.

Listened: To the loud boom of the Dart Warz speaker as our school hosted a fundraising night there on Thursday.  We were able to take Landon and many of Jack's classmates showed up.  We got the benefit of the worker's sloppy writing and the boys were able to play for an hour and half for the price of only one hour.  It made squeezing in dinner in the car and wrestling practice extra tight, but luckily I was prepared for that and we squeezed into practice just in the nick of time.

Made: Jack an absolutely amazing Valentine's Day box.  This is the first year that we have gotten advance notice to make a box at home. He said he wanted the theme of Jayhawk's but didn't want to help make it.  After a google search, I decided to make a basketball jersey box. Luckily, Roy and Nick have had lots of conversations about Trajan font, so I was able to download the font that matched the jersey perfectly. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Hopefully the kids like it a lot too. 

Felt: So thankful to be part of such a fun book club that really spends time discussing the book that we read for the month.  There had been lots of talk of reading a classic, so I suggested reading Murder on the Orient Express for our next novel.  It is coming out as a movie again this year and I thought maybe we could all go and see it together too.  It will be my first Agatha Christie book so I am looking forward to it.  She is one of Nick's favorite author's so I think it will be neat to finally share that with him.

Planned: All sorts of meals at home for Jack and I.  Nick was out of town this week which generally means that we will eat out often or eat snack type dinners.  We actually had yummy teriyaki chicken, pork chops, and a couple other yummy things.  I guess the more often Nick goes out of town, the more used it to we become.  He has been gone so much lately, but we are glad to say that, as now, he will be in town for three weeks.  He's gone a good chunk of March, but I guess you take what you can get!

Loved: Seeing all the volunteers come out to make our club ran tournament totally awesome.  It was great working a big event knowing that there were other people that I could count on to make the tournament great for everyone involved.  I didn't hear any complaints and I thought our club represented really well.  I made easy to read concession signs that I was quite proud of.  I also helped Coach upload some training videos and create a mock match.  Our table help really seemed to get it and we impressed the league too.  Hopefully we will be able to get another tournament in next  year.  I am also very glad to say that I was able to make it to each of Jack's matches.  He ended up with 2nd again, losing his only match 0-1 with an escape point.  He was so close to flipping him and I wanted him to know which is why you will here me yelling "You're going to lose."  I wanted him to know how hard he had to push.  It didn't work out, but I super proud of how hard he wrestled.  His opponent has only had wins by pins so I think that it is very impressive that Jack did not let him get a take down on him.  You can watch his matches HERE, HERE, and HERE.  

Here are the pics for the week: